Slide valve and spring therefor



y 1932; c. H. voss 1,859,811

SLIDE VALVE AND SPRING THEREFOR v Filed Nov.5, 1931 lnueni'or: C 3 VbssBy 1 Atty.

Patented May 24, 1932 ATENT OFFICE CARL H. VOSS, F SHERIDAN, WYOMINGSLIDE VALVE AND SPRING THEREFOR Application filed November My inventionrelates to new and useful improvements in slide valves, and moreparticularly to the spring for holding the slide valve tightly on itsseat.

Still another object of the'invention is to provide a new slide valvespring that may be used in triple valves, both on freight and passengercars, and also in all air brake appliances requiring a slide valvespring.

As is well known to those skilled in the art, the forms of triple valveswhich are used today are each provided with a leaf spring which are heldin position by a rivet. Under the American Railway Association ruling,every triple valve which comes into a shop for cleaning or repairingmust have the slide valve removed from its piston, so that it may bethoroughly cleaned and lubricated. Now

the only manner in which this spring can be removed is by drifting outthe rivet, and it often happens that due to the trouble in doing so, theworkman does not remove it and the valve, therefore, is not thoroughlyremoved and cleaned.

It also often happens that if the workman removes the rivet, the slidevalve is caused to leak, as when drifting out the rivet the slide valveor the valve guides become bent. Further, it sometimes happens that therivet is bent while being finally peened or headed and this keeps thespring from working properly.

Lastly, it is also necessary, when drifting out the old style of rivetsthat hold the leaf 3" springs, to file ofi the burrs or heads of therivets, all of which takes time, so that often the slide valve and thegraduating valve are neglected or their proper repairs not made.

Another object, therefore, of the present invention is to provide aslide valve having a spring that may be quickly and easily removed, thatwill have less frictional resistance and use possibly less material inmaking the spring, and finally dispensing with a the objectionablerivet.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in certainnew and novel arrangements and combination of parts, as will hereinafterbe more fully described and pointed out in the claims.

3, 1931. Serial No. 572,840.

Referring now to the drawings showing a preferred embodiment,

Fig. 1 is a vertical section with parts in elevation;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the slide valve with the spring in place;

Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical sectional view of the slide valve;

, Fig. 4 is a perspective of the spring showing the manner in which itis formed.

Referring now to the several views and for the moment to Fig. 1, thereis shown a conventional type of valve, with my improvement about to bementioned, consisting of the cylinder 1, the piston 2 therein, and theslide valve 3 with its guide arms 4. There may also be seen thegraduating valve 5 and the various ports 6, all of which are common tothe standard slide valve of today.

Now instead of having a leaf spring, old form, (not shown) in the upperends of the slide valve guides and providing a rivet to hold the springin position, there is shown two oppositely positioned pintles 7 that areremovably mounted in holes 7 in the opposing center guide arms 4, and tothese pintles are fixedly mounted the spring 8,

which will be shortly described in full detail. The purpose of thespring, of course, is to hold the slide valve 3 tightly on its seat 9,in which are the various ports, as heretofore mentioned.

- It is not thought necessary to describe all of the ports of this slidevalve and the graduating valve, as the gist of the present in vent-ionis to so mount the spring on the slide valve as to hold the slide valveand graduating valve together on their piston, as well as to hold theslide valve tightly to its seat, and provide easy removal of the slidevalve from its piston when it is sent in for repair or cleaning andlubrication.

Now referring to Fi 4 in particular, there is shown the spring 8, whichhas to be wound in a certain manner, about to be described, so

that its opposite axes will tend to spread rather than spring together.

I preferably form the spring of one thirtysecondth of an inch springsteel and starting with the end 10 (see Fig. 4), it extends Lil up tothe point 11 where it is wound in a coil or helix 12, while from thecoil extends the straight portion 13. The spring is then looped, as at14, and extends straight again, as at 15, up to where it is wound againin a coil or helix, as at 16. The continuing straight portion 18 is thenlooped, as at 19, and continuesstraight again to its end 20 which is nowopposite and overlaps the end 10 it started with. These two ends maythen be soldered or welded, as at 21.

The little center loops 14 and 19 embrace the pintles or pins '7 thatare to be mounted in holes 7 in the upper ends of the arms t, so thatthe two coils of the spring, when in position, will bear against theupper wall 22 of the casing, and the spring, being'mou-nted on thepintles T in the guise arm 4, will hold the slide valve down tightly onits'seat 9. The pintles 7 are welded or soldered within the loops shown,so that these pintles may be quickly fitted within the holes 7 in thearms 4. To place the spring in position, it is, of course, onlynecessary to squeeze the opposite loops 1% and 19 together, after whichthese pintles 7 may he slipped within the holes 7, while the spreadingaction of the parts of the spring will tightly hold them in theirrespective holes.

t will be seen that by forming the spring as above outlined, there isalways a tendency for the pintles to spring apart, which action will, ofcourse, tend to hold them tightly within their respective holes in theguide arms of'the slide valve.

When it is desired to remove the slide valve so that the same may becleaned or lubricated or its face ground, it is only necessary, afterremovin the piston,-to press the axes of the springs together, whichwill, in turn, remove the pins 7 from'thearms and the slide valve orgraduating valve may then be ground or lapped or lubricated, as is foundnecessary. It is then but the matter of a moment to again slip thespring in place or a new one, if required, and the valve will thus beheld at all times tightly-on its piston and on its seat, preventing anyleakage of air.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that I have dispensed. with a rivetand in its stead use two small pintles. I have alsodispensed with theordinary leaf spring and have provided a differentform of spring that nay be quickly and easily removed or as quickly and easily replaced,thu's'doing away with the ordinary drifting out of the rivet andpossible mutilation of the valve, valve seat, or guide arms.

Finally, it will be seen that with the present invention, the manner ofremoving the slide valve and graduating valve from their piston is sosimplified that there will be no excuse for the workman not to remove itand to properly clean and lubricate it, ac-

cording to the American Railway Association ruling.

Although I have shown the spring in the valve of freight brakeequipment, it will be understood that it is easily applied to any formof triple valve or air brake appliance which has heretofore required aslide valve spring'and a rivet to hold the same.

Many slight changes are possible without in any way departing from thespirit and scope'o f the invention, such as fixedly mounting the pintles7 and slipping the loops over them, and I do not limit myself to thespecific construction hereinbefore set forth except as hereinafterclaimed.

'1 claim:

1. A slide valve including guides, a continuous spring having-a helix atits opposite ends, pintles associated with the guides and with-thespring for holding the spring in position in the guides.

2. A slide valve having guiding arms forniin ga ,partthereof, two of theopposite arms provided with openings therein, an endless spring havingcoils at its opposite ends, {pintles associated with the springsubstantially midway of its length, and the .pintlcs fitting within theholes of the guides of the slide valve and holding the sprin in place.

3. A. slide valve including guiding arms, two of the opposite armsprovided with open ings therein, a spring having coils at itsopposite-ends, pintles fixed to the spring substantially midway of itslength,'the pintles removably fitting within the holes of the guides oftheslide valve and thespring also holdingsaid pintles tightly iintherespective oppositearms.

4. A slide valve including upright portions, .a'continuous spring havinga helix at its opposite ends and loops midway of its ends, pintles:rigidly secured within said loops, said ,pintles .removably placedwithin said upright portions of the slide valve, and the spring soformed as to continuously ,press said pintles away from each other.

5. A slide valve having oppositely positioned uprights, .a springendless inform and having "a helix at its opposite extremities, pintlesextending from the opposite sides of the spring and sprung within theuprights, and the springso formed as to normally tend to force thepintles outwardly from each other to hold the spring in place.

6. A slide of a slide valve having oppositely positioned guide arms, -.aspring endless .in form having a helix at its opposite extremities,loops formed on each side of the spring between the saidhelices,pint'les rigidly fitted within said loops, and-the p intles sprungwithin the guide arms, the helices so wound as to normally force thepintles outwardly from each other to thereby tightly hold the springwithin said ,guide arms.

7. A spring formed of wire .an d having parallel sides and a helix atits opposite ends, 100 s formed in the wire between the helices an atpoints opposite each other, the two parallel sides of the springextending from the outer sides of the said helices whereby the saidparallel portions will have a tendency to be normally forced away fromeach other.

8. A spring for a slide valve consisting of wire bent to form parallelslides and a helix at its opposite extremities, loops formed midwaybetween the helices, the parallel portions of the wire extending to theouter turn of the helices whereby the said parallel portions will tendto spring away from each other rather than towards each other.

9. A spring for a slide valve comprising a wire having its ends securedto form a spring loop and the loop having a helix at its oppositeextremities, the wire being bent between the helices and adapted to besecured to respective supporting means, the coil of each helix bein sowound as to normally force the stran s between the helices apart ratherthan towards each other.

10. A wire spring having a helix at its opposite extremities, supportingloops formed between said helices, one side strand of the springextending from the bottom of one helix to the top of the opposite helixand the other strand extending from the bottom of the last-mentionedhelix to the top of the firstmentioned helix whereby the side strands ofthe spring will tend to spring apart rather than toward each other.

In testimony whereof I ailix my si ature. CARL H. BSS.

